We will see. I don't deny that Worlds was good competition for US ladies and bad competition for Russian ladies. Then again if you compare their results at 4CC and Europeans, you may notice that Europeans was good competition for Russian ladies and 4CC not so great for US ladies. We will see the next season, how it will work out. I definitely think that Russian ladies are not any worse than US ladies. In my opinion they are better, but we will see. I wonder how long Ashley Wagner will be achieving with her limited technical difficulty...

I can almost Guarantee Gracie will be the leading US lady for Sochi
Ashley would be lucky to get silver at 2014 Nationals with her no 3-3 or 2A-3T she pretty much passed her peak

besides Wagner is a non threat for a OGM only Gracie can challenge the big 3

Can she? She definitely did not do much challenging at 4CC and at Worlds.

Finishing 6th at her first Worlds is a great accomplishment for Gold in her first season as a Senior. She has a great future.

Sotnikova and Tuktamysheva have been predicted to win everything in sight, but they finished behind Gold and Wagner. I doubt very much Gold will be on the podium in Sochi but she should challenge for the World podium in the next quadrennial.

Finishing 6th at her first Worlds is a great accomplishment for Gold in her first season as a Senior. She has a great future.

Sotnikova and Tuktamysheva have been predicted to win everything in sight, but they finished behind Gold and Wagner. I doubt very much Gold will be on the podium in Sochi but she should challenge for the World podium in the next quadrennial.

its not even about making the podium next quad but when she will win the gold medal
Gracie is that talented

its not even about making the podium next quad but when she will win the gold medal
Gracie is that talented

Oh, I recognize your type of posts from another forum. I happen to dislike such "grand prediction" posts about any young skater because it often turns fans against the innocent skater and/or encourages them to criticize his/her skating more harshly than is necessary. I prefer to let young skaters develop at their own pace and let their skating do the talking.

Back on topic...

Looking at post #1, the top 12 ladies from Worlds are guaranteed 2 GP assignment each and 18 other ladies currently either are top 24 WS (projected) and/or have a top 24 SB score. If all 18 happen to receive 2 GPs each, that means the 60 GP slots would be filled (10 slots for each of the 6 GPs). We'll have to wait and see which few ladies end up returning to the JGP and which ones not currently on the lists will get 1 GP via host pick or otherwise.

Looking at post #1, the top 12 ladies from Worlds are guaranteed 2 GP assignment each and 18 other ladies currently either are top 24 WS (projected) and/or have a top 24 SB score. If all 18 happen to receive 2 GPs each, that means the 60 GP slots would be filled (10 slots for each of the 6 GPs). We'll have to wait and see which few ladies end up returning to the JGP and which ones not currently on the lists will get 1 GP via host pick or otherwise.

It does happen each year that a skater or two not on either of the 'guarantee' lists gets invited to a GP (not a host pick). Usually at least one host pick per host is not on either list as well. That's why not all the high-ranked WRs and SBs will get two spots; that's been the case since the ISU cut the singles events from 12 to 10.

Leonova should not get a GP assignment nor should Makarova or Nikol G - for one fluke performance
I think they are all done

Leonova doesn't really deserve it after her season but she will probably get 2 anyways...Nikol will probably get 1 event, maybe 2 with host pick. Idk about Makarova. This may depend on Pogorilaya and if she does JGP or GP and if she gets 1 spot or 2 (IMHO, she deserves 2 a lot more than Leonova but idk what the Fed even thinks about Pogo at this point given she's so new to the scene and young).

How would Worlds have been different, if at all, had the Russians skated at their full ability?

None of Osmond, Gold, or Wagner skated their best at Worlds either. Why just speculate on the Russians. Osmond had the worst errors of all by far and still finished ahead of both Russians, tied Sotnikova in PCS with her hot mess of a LP performance and easily bested an almost clean Tuktamysheva in them, so draw your own conclusions. Sotnikova is probably the least capable of all of that group of skating a clean LP or clean competition to boot, so even less reason to speculate on her than the others.